They should have shot that scene differently. Obviously they needed her to eat something on the table to "break the rules", but the way she did it was pretty unbelievable. Brushing away the fairies was very out of her character.
I absolutely love this movie, and think it is a modern masterpiece, just that one scene gets on my nerves.
When I saw the scene, I kept saying (to myself) they are trying to help you, listen to them. But she is a princess (in real life), so she is demonstrating that air of superiority. I will do what I want. She was denied her meal, so it made sense she would be hungry. It might be clumsy as to how they moved the scene forward. She had to break the rule, to be punished, learn, and atone for her disobedience. She learned that there are consequences to her actions, not to think only of herself, and was not afraid to take punishment, in my opinion. Which now I understand the final quest and her choice. But how would you set the scene?
If we can save humanity, we become the caretakers of the world
Yeah I know about her being sent to bed without supper, but they should have played that up more. They should have shown her looking at the food in awe. It should have looked so appealing to her that she was transfixed to it like it was the most beautiful thing she had ever seen. The way the scene was shot in the movie made it seem like she didn't care about the food until the task was done, then just for kicks she wanted to have a couple of grapes.
shareI beg to differ. Just seconds earlier, Ofelia pick the right door and retrieves the dagger by disobeying the fairies. Having given her bad advise about the dagger, Ofelia chose to disobey them again when they advised her about the food.
Also, Ofelia was disobedient against the captain from the first moment they met.
Aand, iirc, the very film started with Ofelia being told not to go astray when her mother was ill in the car. Ofelia found the stone eye, disobeyed her mum and went looking for the rest of the statue, found it, put the eye in place, and voila, the quest was on.
Edit (after dinner ): Del Toro has stated that he views Princess Moanna as real (ie. not only existing in Ofelia's head). This might be one of his hints towards this; there is a Princess inside Ofelia, a Princess used to make up her mind on her own.
In Cod we trust.
Being disobedient is part of her character, but only towards people she doesn't respect. She should respect the faun and the fairies.
shareBut at the climax of the film, she is disobedient to the faun, and that is the final act that proves she is Moanna. The faun tells Ofelia to give her baby brother to him so that the faun can provide blood of an innocent, and she refuses, despite several forceful commands by the faun.
The blood of the innocent was ultimately her blood, shed when Vidal shot her, and that selfless act and her defense of her brother against both Vidal and the faun were her final test.
Regarding the grapes, it's somewhat irrational that she would take them after warnings by the faun because it is a selfish, apparently weak act, and her disobedience in that instance comes across to me as a somewhat clumsy way to awaken the Pale Man and drive the plot for the rest of the scene. The best explanation I've heard is that the food or the room are enchanted, like a siren in the Odyssey that compels her to do an irrational thing.
When viewing it seemed as though a sort of enchantment overtook Ofelia after she had finished the task, giving a double take and I believe there was even a sort of windchime FX that played that gave an even stronger impression of this.
I know the first time I watched the movie I thought it was more than a little odd, especially since the items she consumed were merely grapes and could hardly be called filling. I consider this screenplay to be pretty solid in its writing and implementation so I could hardly say that it were lazy writing but rather something we as audience members may have picked up on initially. I certainly shared similar viewpoints of it being an out of character action she engaged in until I viewed it again.
I would even go so far as to say she was never portrayed as a disobedient child but rather a curious one so heavily steeped in her ideas and fantasies that she would sometimes carelessly meander off the beaten path as a result of being windswept by said indulgences.
The fairies appeared to be part of the test - linked to the faun's last task - based on how they all greeted her in the end. In the pale man's lair, she learned that choices came with consequences. So later on when she made her final choice of going against the faun's will about harming her brother, she knew serious issues could be in store.
And, I don't see going against the faun's will in the end as disobedience, it was integrity and character. Going against his advise of not eating anything from the pale man's table was disobedience, but hey, what could you expect from a very hungry kid, several hours after she talked to the faun?
In Cod we trust.
I agree with your argument. She was previously rewarded for disobedience, so it made sense that she thought it wouldn't be a big deal. The Faun didn't tell her why she shouldn't eat the food. She could have thought it was because the Pale Man would notice his food was missing and get angry. She didn't know that eating triggered his awakening.
I love Skyler White.
I almost want to say the food on the table had some type of (magical?) effect on her, making her do something she would not normally do. It sounds kind of weird, but that's what I think.
shareI agree. I thought the same thing. Because Ofelia was presented to us as an intelligent girl up until that point. I found myself repeatedly admiring her for her courage and understanding in various situations. She never once came off as bratty.
But in that scene, she turned into a stupid, even somewhat bratty, girl. It didn't seem right to me. Of course, it was minor, and it didn't ruin the movie for me or anything like that.
But I was delighted when I saw this thread. I'm pleased to know that I wasn't the only one who felt this way about that particular scene.
Again, not criticizing the film as a whole, just that one moment. Still a solid movie.
Yeah this is one of my all time favorite movies, but those 5 minutes or so should have been done differently.
shareby poisonriceball ยป 2 days ago (Sat May 10 2014 15:59:09)
I agree. I thought the same thing. Because Ofelia was presented to us as an intelligent girl up until that point. I found myself repeatedly admiring her for her courage and understanding in various situations. She never once came off as bratty.
But in that scene, she turned into a stupid, even somewhat bratty, girl. It didn't seem right to me.
From trivia
"Ivana Baquero was too old to play the lead part originally written for an eight- or nine-year-old, but Guillermo del Toro was so impressed that he revised it to accommodate the 11-year-old actress."
I think all of the food was ENCHANTED. It never showd the girl starving or going underprivilaged compared to other children of the time. Eating the grapes and shooing the the faries away made no sence unless the feast was enchanted. Thats what i think!
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